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Durham, N.C. — A Durham man was sentenced Monday to life in prison after a jury found him guilty of murder in a shooting death that prosecutors called a contract killing.

Angel Luis Richardson, 23, was convicted of first-degree murder in the Dec. 4, 2006, death of Marlon Rand.

Rand, 23, was shot several times as he sat in his car outside his North Street home.

Prosecutors said the shooting was payback after Rand robbed Donald "Face" Shealey, a leader of a local gang. Shealey hired someone to kill Rand, and Richardson was enlisted to carry out the crime in exchange for having his drug debt erased.

The middle-man in the deal, Lemuel "Zeke" Sherman, reached a deal with police to implicate Richardson. He pleaded guilty in December to being an accessory after the fact in Rand's death and was sentenced to two years on probation.

Shealey was sentenced last summer to life in prison on federal drug trafficking and money laundering charges.